A Very Good Place to Restart
WHUD!
Applejack's well-toned hooves struck another tree.
Fruit fell.
Her eyes fell.
She sighed into the basket... plopped in a few loose apples... then pushed it firmly towards the nearby wagon.
She stacked the basket onto the back of the cart... then lingered where she stood.
It was the middle of the day. The sky was bright. The earth was warm. The clouds in between glinted in the sunlight.
Applejack stood in place. For a brief minute, she didn't work, she didn't struggle, she didn't think.
She looked towards her left.
The Apple Family house stood silent and proud in the center of the farmstead.
She looked to her right.
Orchards stretched on endlessly. The spaces in between hummed with humidity and cicada song.
Yet another sigh.
Applejack grasped another basket—an empty one. She lingered as her forelimbs grasped it. The gesture felt like a hug... but perhaps that was a stretch. Nevertheless, Applejack paused... savoring the sensation...
...and soon she was back to plopping the basket onto the ground and shoving it towards the next unplucked tree.
She was so focused on the next leg of work that she didn't detect the thunder in the air until it had reached a cresendo. Curious, her eyes darted up. The blue color of the sky was shifting, firing a veritable bullet earthward that streaked over her head and nearly tore her hat off.
"Whoah nelly—!" Applejack hissed. Her lungs had emptied in surprise so that she could scarcely pronounce her shock.
THUDDDD! Something landed violently in the soft, pliable earth. It grinded through the mud, forming a deep trench between the apple trees.
Once it came to a stop, Applejack was shocked to see that the fallen object possessed four limbs, two wings and a twitching tail. Her heartbeat went into overdrive.
"Land's sakes!" Applejack galloped towards the trench on heavy hooves. When she saw the tail twitching again in response, she continued: "That sure was one whopper of a dive you done took!"
There was a raspy sound. A grunt. Lithe limbs and blue muscles squirmed from the heart of the trench. Applejack smelled sweat, raindrops, and a hint of musk.
"Gallopin' galoshes!" She lingered on the edge of the freshly-formed crater, grimacing. "Look at you! Are y'all okay, Mister?"
"Guhhh... Missus," a cracking voice corrected. Blue wingfeathers stretched and unstretched. Every limb shifted as the petite figure came back to life. "Ugh... dang it!" The exclamation was followed by a pained series of mumbled words.
Applejack craned her neck. "What's that, darlin'? 'Fraid I couldn't make you out."
"Look, whoever you are... I'm friggin' sorry." The pegasus continued to squirm. Her rear legs were stuck in the muddy earth. "I was trying out my signature cloud-breaking move but the stupid winds... grrrrrr... nopony told me that the Equestrian Valley had gales!"
Applejack exhaled with relief. The pegasus was frustrated—yes—and perhaps disgruntled. But both were sizeably better conditions than being shattered to a bloody pulp. A slight smile formed on the farm mare's freckled muzzle. "Heh. I ain't no pegasus pony," Applejack said. "But the weather dun regulate itself 'round these parts like it does up in Cloudsdale."
"How... did you know...?" The newcomer shuddered from within the muddy pit. Only then did Applejack notice how contrastingly colorful her mane was against the brownness enveloping her. It was an exciting sight—the spectrum in all of its glory encapsulating a scampy lump of agitated flesh. "Forget it," the mare grunted... or filly? Applejack couldn't guess how young the poor thing was. "I gotta get back to my weather team or else the sky captain's gonna fire me on my first day. Freakin'..." She fought and struggled to yank herself out of the earth. "What's this mud made out of?! Seagull poop?!"
Applejack tilted her hat back with a proud smirk. "Richest and most fertile earth in the whole kingdom! You bet yer colorful mane!"
"Yeah, well, at the moment I don't really care for it."
"Here..." Applejack shifted forward until she stood on the lip of the trench. "Lemme help you out with that, sugarcube." She reached a hoof out, feeling for the petite pegasus' muddied fetlock. "What's yer name, speedy?"
"Mrrmmmfff... I'm fine, really." The pegasus squirmed with stubborn motions. "If you must know, my name is Rainbow Dash and—"
At last, Applejack grasped the mare's limb. She yanked upwards—and the mare flew up with surprising ease. Applejack hadn't realized how light-weight the pony ws. But it didn't matter; soon she was standing breathless before the farm mare, trembling in her grasp.
Applejack stifled a chuckle. "Hmnmm? And what, darlin?"
A pair of bright, ruby eyes reflected freckles and more freckles. A pair of wings slowly stretched outward as the precocious flier murmured: "...it's my birthday."
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Love at first THUDDDD!
Whos on First?
And Rainbow makes her way into AJ's life, and thus it begins.
Love at first crash.
Ahhh to be not-numb and lovestruck again
Ha, just made it past this part in volume one. Gotta keep up while playing catch up.
And there it is.
Heh heh heh...
Hey there Dash.
I hope we get to see more of how Dash and AJ came to know each other, instead of just fast forwarding back to the present.
And like fate...
Applejack, take it from someone who has tried, drowning yourself in your work is not going to make your depression go away. Maybe Rainbow can though
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Yay! They meet at last.
And here we go. Again.
And we have contact! This is the end of the beginning, or something like that.
Yes! Yesyesyes!
Time to see The Greatest Pine™ from AJ's perspective. Was she truly as oblivious to it as Appedashery suggested? We shall see!
In the meantime, I'm ready to see interaction between Practically-Aromantic-Farmer and The-Piniest-Pine-Who-Ever-Pined.
This is how they met.
pbs.twimg.com/media/CD-QKslUkAAybxh.png
Achievements Unlocked:
Apple-pone: Wingspreader, Sexy and You Don't Know It
Petite-pone: ... Whoah, Hide the Evidence, Keep Calm and Be Calm
!!!
Hey, isn't this where--
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3rd time's the charm!
...because y'know, it's the 3td time were reading this dialogue...
AAAAND IT BEGINS!
...'Cept it doesn't. It never does.
D'aaawww, RD literally brought the color back into AJ's world.
Though this makes the statement from the end of volume 1 about the keepsake feather being more vibrant than the pony it came from even sadder in hindsight.